Magadh · Middle & Lower Gangetic Plain

People

Name	Years	Field	Known for
Ashoka	c. 304–232 BCE	Emperor	Ruled the Mauryan empire from Pataliputra, issued the rock and pillar edicts that are the earliest deciphered Indian writing, dedicated the Barabar caves to a rival sect, and sent the mission that carried Buddhism out of India.
Chanakya (Kautilya)	Fourth century BCE	Political theorist	Associated with the founding of the Mauryan state and with the Arthashastra, a manual of statecraft, revenue and espionage of a bluntness that still surprises readers.
Aryabhata	476–550	Mathematician and astronomer	Worked at Kusumapura, near Pataliputra. Gave a value of pi accurate to four decimal places, stated that the earth rotates on its axis, and set out a trigonometric and algebraic apparatus in verse.
Mahavira	c. 599–527 BCE	Tirthankara	The twenty-fourth Jain tirthankara, who taught across Magadh and died at Pawapuri; the Jain canon was transmitted in Ardhamagadhi, the region's Prakrit.
The Buddha	c. 563–483 BCE	Teacher	Attained enlightenment at Bodh Gaya, taught at Rajgir under the patronage of Bimbisara, and left an order whose first council met in a cave in the hills above the old capital.
Makhdum Sharfuddin Yahya Maneri	1263–1381	Sufi	The Firdausi shaikh of Bihar Sharif, whose Maktubat — letters of spiritual instruction — are among the most widely read Sufi texts written in India.
Guru Gobind Singh	1666–1708	Guru	The tenth Sikh guru, born at Patna, where he spent his early childhood; the takht that marks the site is one of Sikhism's five seats of authority.
Hiuen Tsang's hosts at Nalanda	Seventh century	Scholars	Silabhadra and the Nalanda faculty, who taught the Chinese pilgrim Xuanzang for several years — his account is the principal source for how the mahavihara actually worked.
Anugrah Narayan Sinha	1887–1957	Politics	From Aurangabad; a leader of the Champaran satyagraha's follow-up work and Bihar's first deputy chief minister and finance minister, and a founder of its university and irrigation institutions.
Jagjivan Ram	1908–1986	Politics	From the Shahabad country on this region's western edge; a cabinet minister across four decades and the most consequential Dalit political leader of his generation in north India.
Ram Sharan Sharma	1919–2011	Historian	Wrote the standard economic and social histories of early India and taught at Patna, arguing for a materialist account of exactly the period this region is famous for.
Bindeshwar Pathak	1943–2023	Social reform	Founded Sulabh International in 1970 at Patna, whose twin-pit toilet design was aimed explicitly at ending manual scavenging, and which built sanitation across thousands of Indian towns.

People from Magadh who shaped its history, arts, science, sport and public life. (12)